Neolithic Israel-Palestine: Cults, Spirit Masks and Early Urbanization | Middle East And North Africa

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NEOLITHIC PALESTINE AND ISRAEL (10,000 to 4,500 B.C.)

Natufian mortars

During the Neolithic period (approximately 10,000 to 4,500 B.C.), hunter-gatherer groups began farming and making permanent settlements. Settlements have been found in Israel and Palestine that have large buildings with rooms where people once lived, public facilities and places for rituals. At Motza, the largest Neolithic site in Israel, alleyways ran between buildings, showing that the settlement had an advanced layout. Some buildings even had plaster floors. [Source: Laura Geggel, Live Science, July 17, 2019]

Gerald A. Larue wrote in “Old Testament Life and Literature”: The beginning of the Neolithic period 12,000 and 10,000 years ago (10,000-8,000 B.C.) is characterized by settled communities in which man, having developed agricultural skills, was no longer dependent upon natural resources for food. Excavations at Jericho, directed by Kathleen Kenyon, produced impressive evidence of the development of village culture prior to the invention of pottery. Floors surrounded by stone and earth humps were found in the earliest levels, but solid structures soon began to appear. Circular houses, with pounded earth floors cut below the level of the surrounding terrain, had upper walls of upright poles and elongated, cigar shaped bricks sloping inward to form domed roofs. Woven reed mats covered the floors. Around this community, a wall of free-standing stone had been built, over six feet wide in some places and still standing to a height of twelve feet. A huge tower more than thirty feet high with an interior staircase was built against the inner wall. Such structures indicate the existence of fully developed, cooperative community life as early as the sixth and seventh millennium B.C. [Source:Gerald A. Larue, “Old Testament Life and Literature,” 1968, infidels.org ]

“Subsequent layers of occupation reveal new living patterns. Houses become rectilinear with plastered floors and walls. Bones of goats, pigs, sheep and cattle point to domestication of these animals. Obsidian, turquoise and cowrie shells were imported from Syria, the Sinai peninsula and the Mediterranean for manufacture of tools and ornaments. In a shrine, a piece of volcanic stone from the Dead Sea area was placed in a niche, perhaps foreshadowing the sacred standing pillars mentioned in the Bible. Clay figurines and human skulls with features skillfully modeled in fine clay reveal artistic tendencies and, perhaps, if these items are cult objects, association with worship. Later, in the Neolithic period (fifth millennium), pottery-making begins. From this period have come three almost life-sized plaster statues built on reed frames, representing a man, woman, and child. The male head, which alone was recovered intact, is a flat disc of clay about one inch thick, with shells for eyes and brown paint for hair. It is possible that a divine triad is represented.

Trevor Watkins of the University of Edinburgh wrote: ““In Israel the site of Kfar HaHoresh dates to the later aceramic Neolithic, and it shares with southern Levantine settlement sites the burial of bodies, the retrieval of skulls, and, from the typical houses, the elaborate use of lime-plaster for making floor surfaces. However, there is no sign of everyday living at the site, though there is evidence of feasting episodes; and the rectangles of lime-plaster floor are not part of roofed buildings. The site appears to have been devoted to rituals that are evidenced on settlements of the period in the region, but it is difficult to imagine why a “central place” site was needed for the exclusive performance of practices that were also practised within settlements.” [Source: Trevor Watkins, University of Edinburgh,“Household, Community and Social Landscape: Maintaining Social Memory in the Early Neolithic of Southwest Asia”, proceedings of the International Workshop, Socio-Environmental Dynamics over the Last 12,000 Years: The Creation of Landscapes II (14th –18th March 2011)” in Kiel January 2012 /+]

Natufians

Map of Pre-Pottery Neolithic sites in the southern Levant

The Natufian culture refers to mostly hunter-gatherers who lived in modern-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria approximately 15,000 to 11,500 years ago. Merging nomadic and settled lifestyles, they were among the first people to build permanent houses and cultivate edible plants. The advancements they achieved are believed to have been crucial to the development of agriculture during the time periods that followed them.

According to Encyclopaedia Britannica: Mainly hunters, the Natufians supplemented their diet by gathering wild grain; they likely did not cultivate it. They had sickles of flint blades set in straight bone handles for harvesting grain and stone mortars and pestles for grinding it. Some groups lived in caves, others occupied incipient villages. They buried their dead with their personal ornaments in cemeteries. Carved bone and stone artwork have been found. [Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica ]

Matti Friedman wrote in Smithsonian magazine: Natufians were linked by characteristic tools, particularly a small, half-moon-shaped flint blade called a lunate,. They also showed signs of the “intentional cultivation” of plants, according to Ofer Bar-Yosef, professor of prehistoric archaeology at Harvard University, using a phrase that seems carefully chosen to avoid the loaded term “agriculture.” Other characteristic markers included jewelry made of dentalium shells, brought from the Mediterranean or the Red Sea; necklaces of beads made of exquisitely carved bone; and common genetic characteristics like a missing third molar. [Source: Matti Friedman, Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2023]

Neolithic Pre-Pottery and Pottery Stages in Southwest Asia

In the archaeology of Southwest Asia (the Near East, Middle East) — which includes the Levant (Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon) and Anatolia (present-day Turkey) — the Middle to Late Neolithic period, also known as the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, is divided into two periods: 1) Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) and 2) Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB). The terms were originally defined by Kathleen Kenyon, an archaeologist who worked extensively at Jericho in Palestine in the 1950s. PPNA and PPNB cultures developed from the Mesolithic. Southern- Levantine-based Natufian culture. However, PPNB shows evidence of a northerly origin, possibly indicating an influx from northeastern Anatolia. [Source: Wikipedia]

1) The PPNA culture dates around 12,000 to 10,800 years ago (10,000–8800 B.C.) and is associated most with the southern Levant. It is characterized by tiny circular mud-brick dwellings, the early cultivation of crops, the hunting of wild game, and unique burial customs in which bodies were buried below the floors of dwellings. 2) The PPNB culture was centered in upper Mesopotamia and the Levant, and dates to around 10,800 to 8,500 years ago (8800–6500 B.C.). It differs from the PPNA period in that people relied more on domesticated animals to supplement their mixed agrarian and hunter-gatherer diet. In addition, the flint tool kit of the period is new and quite different from that of the earlier period.

Ceramic Neolithic or Pottery Neolithic, is the final part of the Neolithic period. It followed PPNB and is sometimes further divided into Pottery Neolithic A (PNA) and Pottery Neolithic B (PNB) phases. The Late Neolithic period in Southwest Asia began with the first experiments with pottery, around 7000 B.C. and lasted until the discovery of copper metallurgy and the start of the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) around 4500 B.C.

Neolithic Cult Sites in Israel

About 100 prehistoric "cult sites," many with penis stone structures and artifacts with vulva shapes cut into them, have been discovered in the Eilat Mountains, an extremely arid area of the Negev Desert in Israel.Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: At the sites, which date back around 8,000 years, archaeologists discovered a variety of stone structures and artifacts, including stone circles that measure 1.5 to 2.5 meters across (roughly 5 to 8 feet) with penis-shaped installations pointing toward them. Other findings there include standing stones that reach up to 2.6 feet (80 centimeters) high, stone bowls and stone carvings that have a humanlike shape. [Source: Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 9, 2015]

The skull cult sites are often clustered together. In one area the team discovered 44 cult sites in a spot encompassing only 0.8 square kilometers (less than 200 acres). "Taking in[to] consideration the topography, environmental conditions and the small number of known Neolithic habitations in the general southern Negev, the density of cult sites in this region is phenomenal," the team wrote in an article published in the Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society.

The cult sites were found in a mountainous area that receives only 20 mm (0.79 inches) of rain per year, on average, the archaeologists said. Around 8,000 years ago it would have been somewhat wetter. "The climate of the 7th-6th millennia B.C. was a little moister than that of the present, 40 percent-20 percent more rainfall, but the desert was a desert," said Avner.

An archaeological survey in the southern Negev, Israel, uncovered hundreds of Neolithic cult sites dated to 10,000 to 8,000 years ago built on the mountains, with specific characteristics: ‘regular’ and perforated standing stones, anthropomorphic stone images and other intriguing stone features. Uzi Avner of the Dead Sea-Arava Science Center (DSASC) wrote in “A Survey of Neolithic Cult Sites in the Eilat Mountains, Israel” (January 2014): “Arava regions have yielded an abundance of sites provisionally dated to the Neolithic, based primarily on surface lithics and the lack of pottery. "Rodedian" sites are small, and most cluster above Na al Roded, five kilometers north-west of the town of Eilat. The sites are distinguished from contemporaneous habitation sites in the desert region by several unique characteristics...They are found in rugged topography, on high igneous mountain ridges. Sites are usually located just below the mountain summit, on topographic shoulders and saddles, or other relatively flat spots. Built features consist of small and low cells built of unworked fieldstones, as well as other, small stone installations or flagstones set into the ground. . [Source: “Neolithic Cult sites in the Eilat Mountains, Israel” by Avner, U., M. Shem-Tov, L. Enmar, G. Ragolski, R. Shem-Tov, O. Barzilai, Archaeopress Publishing Ltd, 2019}

Humanlike stone carvings were also found at the Neolithic Cult Sites in Israel

Many more sites in the area remain to be surveyed and described in published papers, Avner told Live Science. A "survey of a larger area yielded to date 349 cult sites," he said, adding that researchers are preparing these finds for publication. "The number of cult sites recorded to date suggests that many more still await discovery," the researchers wrote."Many more may be found on the mountains of the Negev, southern Jordan and Sinai." One "may think now of a vast phenomenon, of hundreds of mountain cult sites in the desert.

Rituals That Took Place at Neolithic Cult Sites in Israel

The Neolithic Cult Sites in Israel. were used for ritual activities of some sort but archaeologists know little about what these activities were other than animal sacrifice was probably involved somehow based on the presence of bones found there. Owen Jarus wrote in Live Science: Archaeologists are working to decipher any meaning from the artifacts and structures, noting that both death and fertility seem to be symbolized at the sites. For instance, in addition to the penis-shaped structures, researchers also found that some of the stones have vulva-shaped holes cut into them. The circles that the penis-shaped structures point to also seem to represent females. "The circle is a female symbol, and the elongated cell is a male one (phallus)," said Uzi Avner, a researcher with the Arava-Dead Sea Science Center and the Arava Institute, in an email to Live Science. [Source: Owen Jarus, Live Science, February 9, 2015]

Death is "signified by the burial of stone objects and by setting them upside down," the team members wrote in their paper. In one case, a humanlike stone carving was found buried "with only the very top visible on the surface." The two symbols identified so far, fertility and death, go hand in hand in many cultures. "Combinations of both are actually well-known in anthropological studies as relating to ancestral cult," the archaeologists wrote.

The cult sites tended to be built in relatively flat sections of the mountains. "Their position on topographic 'shoulders' or comparatively flat locations probably enabled several dozens of people to gather around them, for example, an extended family," the archaeologists wrote. The sites also provide a good view. "Commonly, a broad view is seen from the sites, so possibly, the scenery was one element in the selection of their location," the archaeologists added. While the researchers discovered many cult sites, they found few domestic ones. "In contrast to the density of cult sites, only two small habitations and one small campsite were found on the ridge," they wrote, noting that these three sites were all associated with the cult sites.

9,000-Year-Old ‘Spirit’ Cult Masks from the Judean Hills

Limestone “spirit” masks, estimated to be 9,000 years old, were found in the Judean Desert and Hills. Believed to be part of an ancestor worship cult, they weigh one or two kilograms and are oval shaped visage, according to the Times of Israel, “with glaring ocular cavities, toothy maws, and a set of holes along the outer edge. They were likely painted in antiquity, but only one has remnants of pigment. Each of the 12 is unique, and possibly depicts individuals. Some of the faces are old, others appear younger. One is a miniature, the size of a brooch. They may represent ancestors venerated as part of an early Stone Age religion. “It is important to say that these are not living people, these are spirits,” said Dr. Debby Hershman, curator of prehistoric cultures at the Israel Museum, who organized an exhibit of the masks in 2014. She was reluctant to place a mask from the exhibit over her face out of reverence for bygone traditions. [Source: By Ilan Ben Zion, Times of Israel, March 5, 2014]

Hershman and her colleague, Professor Yuval Goren, an expert in comparative microarchaeology from Tel Aviv University, teamed up to assemble the masks and analyze their origins and significance and compare their features and functions. Additional analyses of the masks were conducted at the Computerized Archaeological Laboratory at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by Dr. Leore Grosman and her team. The people who created this artwork were among the first humans to abandon nomadic life and establish permanent settlements. Because the masks predate writing by at least 3,500 years, there is no record of their usage. Based on years of attribute analysis of their iconography, however, Hershman believes that the carved limestone masks were used as part of an ancestor cult, and that shamans or tribal chiefs wore the masks during a ritual masquerade honoring the deceased.

“They are the first glimmerings of existential reflection,” said James Snyder, the museum’s director. He noted that the masks possessed a “striking connection” to 20th century artwork, saying they looked like something Picasso might have created. By examining the type of stone and the patina on the surface of the masks, Goren determined that all of the artifacts originated from an area of the Judean Desert and Judean Hills approximately 50 kilometers (30 miles) in radius. “Other groups likely made other masks from other materials” that did not withstand the test of time, Hershman said. These fortunate few were made of stone and were preserved in the arid desert climate.

Some of the masks were found by Israeli archaeologists Ofer Bar Yosef during excavations at the Nahal Hemar cave in 1983. The cave, perched in the limestone cliffs above the shores of the Dead Sea, yielded a cache of neolithic artifacts at least 9,000 years old which included baskets, beads and the world’s oldest known glue and masks. Another was found at Horvat Duma, a site in the Judean Hills near Hebron.

9,000-Year-Old Cremation Remains Found in Israel — Oldest in the Middle East

Levant’s first deliberate cremation — of a young adult who was bound and burned in a small pit shortly after death — occurred around 9,000 years ago, according to new analysis of bone and ash remains discovered in northern Israel’s Beisamoun site in 2013. According to a study by an international team of scholars published in the PLOS One online science journal in August 2020. The remains were found in a small kiln-like funerary pit and represents a transition in funerary practices in the Levant, indicating a cultural shift for the ancient people in the region. “This is a redefinition of the place of the dead in the village and in society,” said lead author Fanny Bocquentin of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in a PLOS press release.[Source: Amanda Borschel-Dan, Times of Israel, August 13, 2020]

9,000-Year-Old ‘Spirit’ Cult Masks from the Judean Hills

In the article — “Emergence of corpse cremation during the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Southern Levant: A multidisciplinary study of a pyre-pit burial” — the scientists describe using radiocarbon dating of the relatively intact fibula to between 7013-6700 B.C.. According to the PLOS One article, “The findings from Beisamoun demonstrate that cremation treatment first appeared at the site with the transition from the 8th to the 7th millennia B.C.… a cultural transitional still poorly understood.” It is unknown is how the corpse died. The authors write that “the young deceased had been the victim of interpersonal violence, but survived.”

Amanda Borschel-Dan wrote in the Times of Israel: The scientists discovered a 0.5-inch-long (1.2 centimeters) flint projectile point embedded into the left shoulder that possibly tore a muscle and definitely fractured bone. According to the article, the projective “most likely caused a large hematoma and severe pain but not necessarily impaired function. The individual survived the injury, based on the completely healed area of the wound, which may take 6 weeks to a few months to heal.” The scientists further discovered that the corpse would have been freshly dead when fired to circa 500°C (932°F). The crematoria was a small U-shaped, red mud “kiln,” which measured 32 inches in diameter and 24 inches deep (80 cm by 60 cm). For comparison purposes, according to the website Cremation Resource, today, “Cremation of a dead body is carried out at a temperature ranging between 1400 to 1800°F” (760-982°C). The practice of cremation is anathema to the traditional Orthodox Judaism that guides the the modern State of Israel’s rabbinate, but it is permitted in the country.

The ancient small burial pit held 355 fragments of bones, all largely burnt. According to the article, among the other evidence for “in situ pyrotechnic activities” include the ashy pit fill and burnt mud plaster on the pit wall. That and the associated finds of phytoliths (plant tissues) and fauna remains, write the scholars, “allows us to confirm that it represents a single cremation event of a fully articulated corpse.”

While other burnt human remains have been found from earlier periods in other Levant locations, these cremains represent the oldest intentionally cremated corpse in the region, state the authors. Australia’s “Mungo Lady” is the oldest in the world, dating to circa 40,000-42,000 years ago. According to the National Museum Australia, she was ritually buried in a multi-step process. “First she had been cremated, then her bones were crushed, burned again and buried in the [dry Lake Mungo] lunette.”

The renewed excavations at Beisamoun, located in Israel’s Hula Valley, began in 2007 as a salvage effort, prior to the widening of the Rosh Pina-Qiryat Shmona highway. Earlier excavations at the site uncovered hundreds of late stone age artifacts, including two eerie plastered skulls discovered side by side under a residence’s entrance in the 1970s. An additional two, badly damaged skulls were discovered in 2016, according to the PLOS One article, in addition to 33 other burials.

Renewed excavations found hundreds of stone tools, including denticulated sickle blades, large ‘Amuq-type arrowheads and many axes, according to a preliminary excavation report. Some of the tools “have a polished cutting edge and others were shaped by a technique known as ‘Hula knapping.'” The report states that the residents survived by hunting wild animals, such as deer, cattle and wild boar, and through agriculture. That corresponds to the cremains’ dating to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic C culture. According to the PLOS One article, the shift from burial to burning the dead is significant. “Cremation activities demonstrate the custom of an alternative funerary program which might have had a strong impact on funeral procedure, mourning time and even ritual meaning.”

Where the 9,000-Year-Old ‘Spirit’ Cult Masks came from in the Judean Hills and Desert

Canaanites

The Canaanites were a people who lived in what is now Lebanon and Israel, and parts of Syria and Jordan between 3500 B.C. and 1150 B.C., during the Bronze Age. They occupied what is now Israel at the time the Hebrews (Jews) arrived in the area. According to the Old Testament they were annihilated in battle and driven out of Palestine by the Hebrews. The Canaanites worshipped a goddess named Astarte and her consort Baal. In the Bronze Age, the Canaanite culture flourished in this part of the Nahal Repha'im basin in which Jerusalem is located.

The Phoenicians, people of Ugarit, the Hebrews (Jews) and later the Arabs evolved from or interacted with the Canaanites, who were a Semitic tribe of the Middle East. In a broad sense, the Canaanites include the Hebrews (including Israelites, Judeans and Samaritans), Amalekites, Ammonites, Amorites, Edomites, Ekronites, Hyksos, Phoenicians (including the Carthaginians), Moabites, Suteans and sometimes the Ugarites.

Canaan, the coast and interior of the eastern Mediterranean, had many cities by 2400 B.C. but was not generally literate. According to the Bible, the ancient Canaanites, were idol worshipers who practiced human sacrifice and engaged in deviant sexual activity. They reportedly conducted human sacrifices in which children were immolated in front of their parents on stone altars, known as Tophets, dedicated to the mysterious dark god Molech. We have some idea what the Canaanites looked like. An Egyptian wall painting from 1900 B.C. depicts Canaanite dignitaries visiting the pharaoh. The Canaanites have Semitic facial features, and dark hair, which the women wear in long tresses and the men have styled in mushroom- shaped bundles on the tops of their heads. Both sexes wore bright red and yellow clothes — long dresses for women and kilts by the men.

The desolate Valley of Hinom, just south of the Old City in Jerusalem, is where the ancient Canaanites reportedly conducted human sacrifices in which children were immolated in front of their parents. Canaan objects, excavated by archaeologists include an 18.5-inch-long ivory horn with gold bands, circa 1400 B.C., unearthed at Megiddo in present-day Israel, and a vessel with the Egyptian hawk-god Hyksos, unearthed in Ashkelon.

5,500-Year-Old Gate and Signs of Early Urbanization?

According to Archaeology magazine: Road construction in northern Israel has led to the excavation of a 5,000-year-old city called En Esur that would have been one of the region’s largest settlements at a time when the world’s first cities were taking shape. Thousands of volunteers overseen by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists have worked for more than two years to uncover 10 acres of the city and a wide array of artifacts. Archaeologist Yitzhak Paz estimates that only about a tenth of the city has thus far been excavated. En Esur may have been home to about 6,000 people living in a highly organized community with densely packed residences, grain silos, public buildings, burial caves, and a network of streets. [Source: Zach Zorich, Archaeology magazine, January-February 2020]

In September 2023, archeologists announced that they had discovered a 5,500-year-old city gate in Israel’s Tell Erani site, the oldest ever found in Israel. Found near an industrial zone when crews were attempting to lay a new water pipe, the discovery suggests an earlier start to urbanization in Israel than originally estimated and represents the possible beginning of urbanization Israel. The gate pre-dates the gate at Tel Arad by about 300 years. [Source: Tim Newcomb, Popular Mechanics, September 3, 2023]

“This is the first time that such a large gate dating to the Early Bronze IB has been uncovered,” Emily Bischoff, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, says in a statement. “To construct the gate and the fortification walls, stones had to be brought from a distance, mudbricks had to be manufactured, and the fortification walls had to be constructed. This was not achieved by one or a few individuals. The fortification system is evidence of social organization that represents the beginning of urbanization.”

According to Popular Mechanics: Located near the Kiryat Gat Industrial Zone, the Israel Antiquities Authority conducted an excavation at the behest of the national water company of Israel, Mekorot, prior to the laying of a new water pipe to an Intel factory. During excavation, crews also found part of a fortification system of the ancient city, dating to about 3,300 years ago, and the much older Tel Erani gate, a roughly 5-foot-tall passageway of large stones over a roadway that led into the ancient city. The find features two towers made of large stones flanking the gate, rows of mudbricks and comes attached to the city walls that were uncovered in previous excavations. The excavation also unearthed a complete alabaster jar and red-colored bowls.

Martin-David Pasternak, Israel Antiquities Authority researcher, says in a statement that passers-by, traders, and even enemies who desired to enter the city had to first pass through the gate. “The gate not only defended the settlement, but also conveyed the message that one was entering an important strong settlement that was well-organized politically, socially, and economically,” he says. “This was the message to outsiders, possibly also to Egypt.” Pasternak believes that the age of the gate shows it was reused multiple times as new settlements were formed.

Tel Erani, believed to be an important early urban center in the area during the Early Bronze period, was part of a larger settlement system. “Within this system we can identify the first signs of the urbanization process, including settlement planning, social stratification, and public building,” Yitzhak Pak, Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist, says in a statement. “The newly uncovered gate is an important discovery that affects the dating of the beginning of the urbanization process in the country.”

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons except first map from Researchgate and Neolithic cult objects by Uzi Avner

Text Sources: Live Science, Wikipedia, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Nature, Scientific American. The Independent, Discover magazine, Discovery News, Natural History magazine, Archaeology magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, BBC, The Guardian, Reuters, AP, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, and various books and other publications.

Last updated June 2024